We had been planning to visit Vaitahu for a while - mostly because cruisers rave that the restaurant Chez Jimmies has cold beer, great wifi, and good food. The original plan was to be here for our anniversary night out. The village was also reputed to have a good store, a small museum, and an archeological site nearby. But the cruisers reports also warned that the landing at the concrete quay was difficult in the constant surge, and impossible at low tide. So we came here hoping to brave the rough landing and wallow in wifi for a day, with some cold beer on the side.

The landing turned out to be a snap in our little kayaks. We don’t carry an inflatable dinghy or an outboard - I have just never seen the need for one. The single person kayaks are easy for one person to launch or retrieve from deck or dock, and in thirty years of use they have never malfunctioned or even needed any sort of maintenance or service.

Our ocean sailing colleagues are always surprised to see us here without an outboard dinghy of some sort. Accustomed to the superhuman strength of the internal combustion engine at their elbow, they imagine that people with paddles will be unable to navigate past any challenges, despite the fact that PolynesIan people with paddles have been navigating these challenges for a thousand years or so.

So we have been solemnly assured by other sailors that we would not be able to land in Puamau, or Hanamenu, or especially here. “It just would not be safe to land in the surge in your kayak” a German sailor assured us back in Atuona when we were making anniversary plans. That same sailor apparently skipped landing here because he considered it unsafe in his powered zodiac. Our friends on Freydis were sure we would be blown out to sea by the gusty winds at the Fatu Hiva anchorage.

But we are used to popping from the kayaks onto the high deck of the Mabel Rose in Hudson River chop, and waiting for the groundswell elevator to lift you up by the concrete pier was not much different. And I dont think you could break a leg by getting it caught between the pier and a forty pound kayak. You might get scratched up a bit though.

Vaitahu is a lovely village. We strolled around the tiki square, checked out the grocery store and reserved two baguettes to be picked up later, visited the tres interressant little museum, that had some ancient stone tiki heads as well as other artifacts and pictures from the archeological site south of town. And we took une promenade to stop by the site itself, which was intriguing for its paepaes and inscrutable hand lettered signs warning that something (i am still not sure what) was “interdit” at the site.

We dropped in at Chez Jimmies for lunch only to learn that it was closed, as was Snack Heitiare, but the grocery store ladies sent us to the permanent lunch truck tiki restaurant by the beach, where we had the “menu” of braised beef stew and frites, and jus de maiaon.

After lunch, we went back to Chez Jimmies and asked if we could at least pay to use their wifi. So for about $5 we were able to surf the best wifi in the Marquesas for a few hours.

Then we collected our baguettes and some groceries, popped back into our kayaks from the lower step on the quai in between surges, and paddled back out to the Mabel Rose just as the evening gusts started peaking at 40 knots.

And the sun set and still our anchor held